Global literature review - Technical
As indicated above, technical references dominate the literature on dried and fermented fish. Of these references, the vast majority focus directly or indirectly on dried and fermented fish products. The one exception to this focus within the technical literature is scientific studies that look at the impact of dried fish production on the environment. As these studies are covered in the section on ecology, we say no more about them here.
We divide the literature is concerned directly with dried fish products into four thematic areas. The smallest of these consists of 16 references that reflect on the definitions and sub-categories of dried fish products. The most comprehensive works are...They agree/disagree as follows...
A second thematic division of the references directly on dried fish products relates to the motivations for research on dried fish. This segment includes works that focus on the assessment of product quality and on food safety and health. These are not completely exclusive categories, as some references link poor product quality to food safety. Most of the product quality references, however, report on efforts at product improvement as measured by nutritional and consumer preference indicators with an eye to improving commercial or nutritional outcomes. The food safety references analyze dried fish products to assess the degree to which they are toxic as a result of spoilage or contaminants. Here major issues of concerns are adverse histamine levels and the prevalence of carcinogens from smoking or fermenting. These references are about health, but health as a motivating theme also includes references that assess the positive nutritional qualities of dried fish, with attention to protein in the older literature and micro-nutrients in the more recent literature.
These motivational themes that in large part inspire the dried fish literature then link to an equally large literature concerned directly with dried fish processing. Some references in this literature are state of the art analyses of processing practices, but the larger share report on efforts to improve processing practices. These references emphasize either the enhancement of quality as a focus or increased efficiencies of production through lower input costs or higher output realization.
The final thematic area in the technical literature are studies that are indirectly about dried fish products. The thematic area closest to dried fish products address storage, packaging, and pest-related matters. From a value chain perspective these references report on studies to enhance shelf life and product quality post-processing with economic and food safety motivations. Other studies are further removed from the dried fish product focus in that dried fish are their starting point. One group of references is focused on the refinement of scientific methodologies, using dried fish as the medium for methods development. A second group aims at the development of novel products, typically micro-biological, from dried fish starters. The purpose here is not improve dried fish product quality, but to market a derivative product either made from dried fish or cultured from micro-flora extracted from dried fish.
